The starting point for the teaching of the present patent application is a dispenser bottle for at least two active fluids, preferably for exactly two active fluids, which is known from an older, but not prior-published, application of the same applicant (DE 102 38 431 A1 and WO 2004/018319 A1). The disclosure of the application documents of DE 102 38 431 A1 and WO 2004/018319 A1 is hereby incorporated by reference into the disclosure of the present patent application.
The previously discussed state of the art, which is not prior-published relative to the priority date of the present patent application, relates to a dispenser bottle with a first receiving container for a first active fluid and at least one, preferably exactly one, second receiving container for a second active fluid, wherein the two receiving containers are either separately constructed and connected together or constructed integrally with one another and wherein the receiving containers each have an outlet for the active fluid and the outlets are so arranged adjacent to one another that the two active fluids can be applied in a common application field of an application region.
This state of the art assumes that the use of active fluids which shall be or have to be stored separately from one another is known from some fields of use, particularly from the field of cleaning surfaces. These active fluids are to come together only shortly prior to or during application to the application region, for example a floor, the surface of a toilet bowl, etc. Examples thereof are bleaching, cleaning, decalcifying and disinfecting agents containing chlorine (for example, WO 98/21308 A2). Active fluids of conventional kind are also applied to, for example, surfaces in bathrooms or in other hygienically sensitive areas.
Active fluids are stored in different receiving containers particularly when they do not have storage stability together. However, other reasons for separate storage of active fluids to be applied together are also known, for example different colorations to communicate different functions of the active fluids, different light sensitivities, etc.
The dispenser bottle—from which the afore-mentioned state of the art (WO 98/21308 A2 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,398,846 A) proceeds—for at least two different active fluids which do not have storage stability together comprises a bottle which has two mutually separate chambers forming the receiving containers and which is provided at the upper end with directly adjacent outlets for the active fluids in the two receiving containers. A first aqueous solution is in one receiving container and a second aqueous solution in the second receiving container. The concentration of the components in the two aqueous solutions is in that case selected so that when a specific quantity of the first aqueous solution is mixed with a specific quantity of the second aqueous solution the acidic bleaching solution, which is desired in this prior art, is the result.
The dispenser bottle of the previously explained, prior-published state of the art comprises a pumping device able to be placed on the outlets of the two receiving containers of the dispenser bottle. The active fluids are brought together in the pumping device and expelled in a common spray jet from a discharge nozzle. The active fluids are thus intermixed before they leave the discharge nozzle.
A similar dispenser bottle in which cross-contamination between the two receiving containers can be avoided with a substantial degree of certainty is similarly known (WO 91/04923 A1; DE 690 16 44 T2). In this dispenser bottle a pumping spray device is not provided, but the outlets are simply open and provided with spouts and can be reclosed by means of a closure cap. However, this dispenser bottle is not suitable for spray application.
A dispenser bottle for an active fluid with a receiving container of flexible plastics material and a discharge nozzle specifically for cleaning WC bowls is known (EP 0 911 616 B1), wherein for optimal application of the active fluid in toilet bowls, particularly below the inner edge thereof, the outlet nozzle is formed as a bent-over dosing pipe.
The teaching of the state of the art forming the starting point of the invention has the object of indicating a dispenser bottle with at least two receiving containers for two active fluids, which can be produced economically and is simple for a user to handle and in that case allows two active fluids to be applied separately from one another, but to come together in an application field.
The previously outlined object is fulfilled in the case of the dispenser bottle of the state of the art forming the starting point of the invention in that the receiving containers are constructed as compressible containers and the outlets are each provided with at least one, preferably with exactly one, discharge nozzle so that the active fluids are intermixed only after leaving the discharge nozzles.
The receiving containers according to the teaching of the state of the art forming the starting point of the invention are constructed as compressible containers. Through compression of the receiving containers by the hand of a user there is thus generated in the receiving containers the necessary internal pressure for discharge of the active fluids from the respective, separately provided discharge nozzles. The active fluids thus first mix in the application field only after leaving the discharge nozzles. The desired product to be applied, thus in particular the cleaning agent, bleaching agent, etc., which develops the desired action in the application field, thereby results from the two active fluids during the application.
The dispenser bottle according to the teaching of the state of the art forming the starting point of the invention achieves the previously explained result by a solution which is constructionally very simple and easy to handle, particularly through elimination of a pumping spray device. This dispenser bottle is thus very suitable for use as a mass-production product, particularly for cleaning agents of all kind, especially also for toilet cleaning. However, these dispenser bottles can also be used for a number of other cases of use, for example for dosing textile cleaning agents (washing agent in washing machines, etc.), textile pretreatment agents (bleaching agents etc.) and textile post-treatment agents (softeners, etc.), for dosing of hand and machine dishwashing agents and dishwashing additives (clear rinsing agents, decalcifying agents, etc.) and finally also for dosing surface cleaning agents and surface treatment agents of all kinds.
By active fluids in the sense of the teaching of the state of the art forming the starting point of the invention there are to be understood all liquid and other flowable media, from low-viscosity to high-viscosity through gel-like to pasty substances. In that case, on the one hand the viscosity of the active fluids is of significance for the respective application of interest and on the other hand and in particular degree the thixotropy of the active fluids is also of significance (for explanation of the concept of thixotropy, i.e. the phenomenon that specific active fluids liquefy under the action of mechanical forces, but after the end of the mechanical loading, in a given case with a considerable delay in time, solidify again, thus have a viscosity dependent on the action of mechanical forces, see RÖMPP LEXIKON Chemie, 10th Edition, Georg Thieme Verlag, Stuttgart, 1999, Vol. 6, page 4533).
The present invention embodies preferred features and developments of state-of-the art containers forming the starting point of the invention.
Special and independent significance attaches to an embodiment of the state-of-the-art containers which form the starting point of the invention, in which the design and dimensions of the discharge nozzles and the characteristics, particularly the viscosities and/or the thixotropy, of the active fluids are so matched to one another that—in the case of average pressure by the hand of a user—the fluid flows come into coincidence at a defined, precalculated distance. This means that through appropriate design of the discharge nozzles the flows of active fluids issuing from the discharge nozzles flow onto one another to a certain extent curvilinearly and collide at a spacing from the discharge nozzles which varies somewhat depending on the outflow pressure. The application field of the application region can be located here. This design with the cross-sectional constrictions has particular significance especially when the active fluids are active fluids with substantially identical thixotropy.
In the interim there has also appeared a publication concerning a dispenser bottle with receiving containers for two active fluids (U.S. Pat. No. 6,583,103 B1), which as prior-published state of the art has at any rate all features of the dispenser bottle of claim 1 of DE 102 38 431 A1. Cross-sectional constrictions in the nozzle channels of the outlet nozzles are not provided here.
Also published in the interim was a further publication (WO 2004/045968 A1) which will in a given case illustrate older, not prior-published state of the art if a corresponding validation should take place. This, too, shows a dispenser bottle according to category with receiving containers for two active fluids.
The state of the art which is not prior-published and forms the starting point of the present invention is concerned with various proposals how cross-sectional constrictions can be arranged and formed in the nozzle channels of the discharge nozzles so as to achieve the desired effect of the fluid flows coming into coincidence at a defined, precalculated spacing from the discharge nozzles.